American singers T-Pain, T.I., Ashanti, The Game, and Keri Hilson are among the headliners who will perform in Tauranga next summer as part of a hip-hop and R&B festival touring the country.
Juicy Fest will be held in Tauranga on January 6, 2024, with tickets going on sale on April 26. It is an R18 one-day festival, scheduled for nine shows across New Zealand and Australia.
The festival was cancelled in Tauranga this year due to weather-related safety concerns. As many as 15,000 people were expected to attend, to see a line-up including Nelly, Ne-Yo and Ja Rule.
Next year, T.I., T-Pain, The Game and Ashanti are headlining the event, with Trey Songz, Fabolous, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, Keri Hilson and Mario also joining.
T.I. is a three-time Grammy award-winning, 19-time Grammy-nominated hip-hop icon, while Grammy award-winning singer and songwriter Ashanti became one of the biggest female artists of her time when she joined the music scene in 2002.
T-Pain was one of the most influential hip-hop and R&B artists of the 2000s with multiple hits including ‘Buy You a Drank’ and ‘Bartender’.
In a statement, Juicy Fest promoters Glenn Meikle and Matthew Spratt said they were excited about securing such a “high calibre group of artists” for Juicy Fest 2024.
“We were unable to make Tauranga happen last year due to dangerous weather conditions, but we guarantee we will make it up to you in 2024. We love Tauranga and can’t wait to show all of our international artists our hometown,” Meikle said.
“We’ve been working really hard to secure a line-up to rival this year’s inaugural festival and I think we have achieved that and then some.
“This year, we have added Wellington to the New Zealand leg of the Juicy Fest tour to ensure Juicy Fest is more centralised and more accessible for more people.”
The pair said while they were proud of what had been achieved for the first Juicy Fest, some tweaks had been made behind the scenes to better it for everyone next year.
And there may be a special announcement in the near future that would complement the “already impressive line-up”.
Among the changes will be the earlier opening of festival gates to better cater to the flow of queues.
“We have taken in all the feedback from Juicy Fest 2023 and are confident the next will be even better,” Spratt said.
Juicy Fest 2024 gets under way in New Zealand on January 3.
Juicy Fest 2024
January 3: Christchurch (venue tbc)
January 5: Wellington (McEwan Park)
January 6: Tauranga (Trustpower Baypark)
January 7: Auckland (Mount Smart Stadium)